Pakistan, alongwith other member states of the United Nations, are observing the World Population Day. The occasion marks the tenth anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in 1994 for taking major initiatives to improve reproductive health by pursuing a life cycle approach.
Pakistan, being a signatory to ICPD, has reoriented its strategies and taken a number of programmatic initiatives to focus on reproductive health care since then and made visible progress.
The fertility transition has commenced with total fertility rate coming down to 4.1, while the growth rate has fallen to 1.96%. Contraceptive prevalence rate has risen to 34% and an increasing number of couples are now making conscious decisions about their family size through informed choices about reproductive health care.
Although these achievements are important milestones yet much more concerted efforts are needed to accelerate our pace to achieve our ultimate goal of population stabilisation. The target year of 2020 needs to be brought forward a few years.
The population welfare programme operates within the broad framework of the national development process and our strategic re-orientation is to focus on individual needs through integrated reproductive health and family planning services.
Emphasis on provision of quality of care which will pay increased dividends with the passage of time.
We are now concentrating on taking the services to the doorsteps of the people with the resolve to take the message and offer services of their choices. One of the major new initiatives is to provide a well equipped mobile service unit headed by a lady doctor which will have an impact in improving access to quality care. We are in the process of establishing mobile service units at all tehsils of the country for integrated service provision in close collaboration and co-ordination with the network of Lady Health Workers and the Health Department units.
The efforts are backed up by a vibrant and strong advocacy campaign for behaviour change to muster support at all levels for promotion of small family norm.
Nevertheless, the population issue requires efforts and contribution from all stakeholders and by all strata of the society to popularise small family values and to raise understanding about the benefit of birth spacing.
The success lies in bringing in as many players as possible by forging public, private and civil society partnerships in this vital national cause. On the occasion of World Population Day, we renew our commitment to improve reproductive health status of our people through better and enriched provision of services.